Vehicles ply on a dark
Main Road following power failure in Ranchi on Monday. Picture by Hardeep Singh

Ranchi, Nov. 29: Most parts of the state went without power throughout the day today after supply from the central pool to Jharkhand was cut down drastically due to technical snags at the National Thermal Power Corporation’s (NTPC) Talcher thermal power plant in Orissa.

To make matters worse, internal generation in the state today plunged to below 300MW, against a peak time demand of nearly 1000MW, after one unit of Tenughat Vidyut Nigam Ltd (TVNL) at Lalpania in Bokaro district was forced to be shut down following technical snags.

Power officials reported that with the demand for power far exceeding supply, they had no option but to enforce widespread blackouts throughout the command area of Jharkhand State Electricity Board (JSEB) in 12 out of the 24 districts of the state. The worst affected districts were Ranchi, Gumla, Simdega, Khunti, Lohardaga, Chatra, Garhwa, Latehar, Palamau, East and West Singhbhum and Seraikela-Kharsawan.

The crisis was likely to prevail for the next 48 hours till the shut down unit at TVNL is lit up after necessary repairs on December 1.

Today, supply to JSEB command areas was severely disrupted as blackouts were enforced from anything between 8 to 10 hours.

Even the state capital was not spared as power grid officials reported that supply to Ranchi were reduced to 80MW during the peak evening hours against a normal supply of over 150MW that left them with no option but to enforce load-shedding in phases.

“Jharkhand, on an average, receives around 560MW from the central pool. However, central power supply to the state was reduced to less than 400MW after one unit at Talcher thermal power plant in Orissa had to be shut down due to snags,” JSEB secretary Sumant Kumar Sinha told The Telegraph.

There was a net deficit of over 350MW today.

The JSEB secretary pointed out that the shut down unit at TVNL was likely to be repaired within the next 24 hours after which it would be lit up on December 1.

This is the second time in the last five days that the state has been left without power. A snag at the TVNL boiler unit on November 25 had led to another crisis.